Warning on meningitis treatment

Scores of children may be dying from meningitis each year because they are not being treated by specialist staff during their first 24 hours in hospital, child health experts say today.

Rapid diagnosis, speedy treatment with antibiotics and action to combat organ failure and shock are often vital in saving young people's lives, they say in the British Medical Journal.

The specialists from London and Bristol examined the fate of nearly 500 children under 16 who developed meningitis from December 1997 to February 1999. Of these, 143 died. Organ failure was present in all but two and in 169 survivors.

The researchers found that many children with signs of shock were not recognised as seriously ill. "Often this seemed to be due to their being looked after by doctors trained to look after serious illness in adults." Meningitis shares many features of other life-threatening illnesses.